1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a recording electrode which is employed in a copier and a printer capable of printing an image by directly controlling a flow of charged toner particles, more particularly, to a recording electrode for recording an image with various colors.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional image recording apparatus which employs a recording electrode is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2-137946 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,935. In the image recording apparatus, the recording electrode has a plurality of apertures and charged toner particles can pass through each of the apertures. The image recording apparatus is capable of directly controlling the charged toner particles in order to record an image.
On the other hand, an image recording apparatus which employs at least three of the above-mentioned recording electrodes and is capable of outputting a full color image, is disclosed in the specification and drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 3-30213. In the disclosed image recording apparatus, three recording units each storing one of three colors of toner particles, that is, yellow, magenta, and cyanogen, therein are provided in order along a feeding course of a supporting medium to have an image recorded thereon. Each of the recording units comprises a recording electrode having a plurality of apertures for allowing charged toner particles to pass therethrough and a toner particle supplying portion for carrying toner particles toward the neighborhood of these apertures of the recording electrode.
However, there are problems in the image recording apparatus having the above-mentioned structure. First, there is a need to arrange each recording electrode of the three recording units in an accurate position with respect to a feeding direction of a supporting medium. If the three recording units are not accurately positioned, each electrode of the three recording units gets out of position, respectively. Then, even if toner particles pass through an appropriate aperture at an appropriate time, the toner particles of the three colors cannot be perfectly overlapped with each other. As a result, a bad quality image is formed on the supporting medium. To solve this problem, the user or service technician has to accurately position the three recording units in a perpendicular direction and in a parallel direction with respect to the feeding direction of the supporting member, that is, he/she has to accurately position the recording electrodes. However, it is very difficult for the him/her to accurately position each electrode of the three recording units. Further, he/she takes a lot of time for this operation.